The Popster
This was a product improvement project for an engineering course. With a team of 3 other students, we designed an electric popcorn popper with an improvement over the butter melting function of the device. At the time, we felt the poppers on the market had a poor system for melting butter and distributing it evenly over the corn as it pops.
The metal apparatus seen in the photos is intended to be used as a vessel for butter, to be placed in the hole on the clear lid. Butter would melt due to heat transfer from the heating element and kernels as they're popping in the main body. The apparatus has sloped edges and holes throughout to help guide butter as it melts. The holes on top of the apparatus are to allow steam to escape the popper.